The protesters at Occupy Wall Street and their fellow travellers at We Are the 99% have a number of demands: lower unemployment, relieving the overwhelming debt burden, and making the tax structure more progressive to relieve middle class and poor people from carrying the tax burden. The rightwing response is shockingly incoherent, even from a right wing dominated by putting emotion before reason: the Tumblr We Are the 53%, a reference to the 53% of Americans who pay federal income taxes.

The Tumblr was started by Erick Erickson, and the argument behind it appears to be: "Sure, America may be suffering record unemployment, a go-nowhere economy, uninsured numbers in the millions, a foreclosure crisis and household debt that is 90% of the GDP, but as long as there's still a federal income tax, you should shut up and suffer." It's a strange argument, much akin to telling homeless people they shouldn't complain about being hungry because you pay rent every month, but then again, there's no reason to believe Erickson doesn't also do that.

After all, in his inaugural post, he tried to drum up pity for himself by claiming to have three jobs, using funny maths where each aspect of the same job – rightwing pundit – counted as a separate job (which led many freelancers and bloggers on the left to point out that most of us have at least seven or eight jobs using the Erickson job-counting system.) He also complained about owning two houses, though did refrain from pointing out that his diamond shoes pinch.

The implication of We Are the 53% is that the 53% of Americans who pay federal income taxes are somehow carrying the 47% who don't. It's a strange argument, in that it assumes both that 47% of Americans are on welfare and that there is really such a thing as "welfare" in any meaningful sense in America. Also, it assumes that the majority of federal income taxes go to social spending, even though defence spending takes the biggest chunk. Two of the biggest social welfare programmes, social security and Medicare, have no relationship to that 53% figure, since these programmes are funded by payroll taxes, which are paid by all working people, even if they don't make enough to pay federal income taxes.

The 53% "argument" – it's more like a temper tantrum than an argument – also fails to take into consideration why many people don't pay income taxes. Retired people, those living on disability, and students, ie people who have in the past or will in the future pay federal income tax, make up a large chunk of the 47%, though again it's not out of the realm of possibility that Erickson and company would support repealing child labour laws, eliminating pensions, and putting college out of the reach of all but the independently wealthy, to up the percentages of people who pay federal income tax.

It's fun to pick apart the illogic behind the conservative obsession with federal income tax, but what is most remarkable about We Are the 53% is how off-topic it is. Supporters of the 53% Tumblr seem to be under the impression that Occupy Wall Street posters are demanding a higher tax burden on everyone who pays federal income tax. There is simply no reason to believe this, especially since both We Are the 99% and Occupy Wall Street have repeatedly emphasised that they object to the 1% of Americans controlling 40% of our wealth.

The whole point of Occupy Wall Street is that we should increases taxes on the wealthy to pay for programmes that would benefit the other 99% of us, including the half of us who aren't rich but do pay federal income taxes. Erickson and his supporters clearly realise that they can't argue against the points actually being made at Occupy Wall Street, so instead they're inventing phantoms demanding middle-class tax hikes and fighting imaginary battles with them.

The right's very incoherence should embolden Occupy Wall Street. When your enemies would rather punch shadows than take you on, you know you have a winning argument.